Thursday, June 16, 2011

Several of you have asked some questions and I figured I would take some time and answer them.

Q: How are you feeling? How's your BP?

A: I am feeling fantastic!! Once I was released from the hospital and was home sleeping in my own bed and showering in my own shower I started to feel like a million bucks! I had a check up the week after I was discharged and my BP was 118/70. My doctor started to scale back my BP meds and she would check up on me at my 6 week check-up.

Q: How is Harper?

A: She is doing wonderful! We couldn't be more thrilled with her progress. She is gaining good weight (averages about 2 oz a day). Her nurses say she is the least High Maintenance baby in her hallway and she's the easiest! Which we like to hear!

Q: Have the given you a time frame of when she will come home?

A: No. She has to complete a check list of things before she can come home. We don't want them to give us time frame because if something happens and they have to retract their statement we would be devastated!

Q: Once she weighs 5 pounds she can come home right?

A: There is no weight requirement to being discharged. I asked her nurses about the 5 pounds question and they said that they aren't sure where people heard that but there is no weight requirement.

Q: So, what are the requirements for her to come home?

A: She has to complete 3 things (as far as we know).

1. She has to be completely breathing on her own. (she had this accomplished by her week birthday)

2. She has to be taking all of her feedings from a bottle and/or nursing. (We started nursing last friday and she has done wonderful. The most she has taken is 14 mL. She has taken the bottle twice, 10 and 12 mL at each feeding)

3. She has to past the car seat test. If you watch Grey's then you know what I'm talking about!

I hope I have answered everyone's questions. We don't have much to report, which in my world is fabulous! That means she is just growing and eating, which is what we like! :)

Monday, June 13, 2011

I feel like I can't keep up with blogging since Harper got here and she isn't even home yet! I am going to make today a picture post because she is changing daily. Michael and I are truly blessed to have such a healthy growing baby. She has captured the hearts of all of her nurses, I'm sure if we ever need a night off one of them will babysit...RIGHT?!

Her First Bow

Her PICC Line is OUT!

Daddy's first time to hold her "like a baby" as we call it

Humidity was turned off at 32 Weeks and she is now in clothes!

Seriously, she loves her Daddy. She just stares at him :)

One of MANY hats

Sweet Dreams

My precious, feisty, beautiful bundle of joy!

Her first bath, given by Mom and Dad (well Mom, Dad took pictures)

I say it often, but we are BEYOND blessed by the people that have reached out to us. Just to know that complete strangers are praying for us warms my heart and I want them to know we are praying for them and their families.

Thank you to our own families, our friends and co-workers for your constant prayer, support and unconditional love for our little miracle. She has no idea the amount of people that she has praying for her, but don't worry we will make sure she knows!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Just wanted to give you a rundown of what we have been through the last 3 weeks.

Week 1:

When she was born she was on the ventilator, she cried out 3 times when she was born but just needed some help breathing. I called in the middle of the night after she was born to check on her and her nurse told me she had just taken her off the vent and she was on C-Pap and breathing 21% (we breath 20%). Her doctor was blown away that she was off the vent so fast.

I saw her for the first time on Wednesday night and that was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Looking at her with all these wires and tubes and really seeing how tiny she was took a toll on my emotions. I knew she was in the right place and they were providing the best care for her possible! But our little girl is a fight and was only on the C-Pap for a day!!

After the C-Pap, Little Miss was on the Nasal Cannual only needing 5% oxygen! Again, she was amazing her doctors and they took her off the Nasal Cannual at her 1 week birthday! They also turned off the Phototherapy light because her Jaundice had been cleared. We were finally getting to see her beautiful eyes!

We got to hold her for the first time just a few days after she was born. We had to wait for her arterial line to be removed before we do what they call Kangaroo time. Kangaroo time is where she is skin to skin with us and we wrap her in warm blankets to keep her body temp up but she also gets that one on one connection and time with us. This is our favorite time of the day! We love snuggling with her!!

Week 2:

Harper had her feedings increased almost every day during week two! We had a few days where she wasn't pooping but she made up for that right before her 2 week birthday! She had a BLOW OUT diaper every single diaper change!! Michael and I were beyond excited about that but also felt bad for the nurse! :) Who knew that our lives would revolve around praying for poop! The day before her 2 week birthday they took her PICC line out. She was getting all of her nutrients from my milk and wasn't in need of the IV fluids so they stopped that and removed her PICC line. During this week she also gained the majority of her weight!

Week 3:

I called to check on her this morning and Dr. Anderson came in to check on her and he upped her feeding to 29 mL (30 mL is 1 ounce!!). Our baby girl is weighing in at 3 pounds and blowing the minds of her Doctor and Nurses. She has done nothing but improve every day and we are so proud of her!! I can't believe she is almost a month old!

Hopefully we will get to start trying to nurse and bottle feed this week! Stay tuned to how that turns out! :)

We still want to thank everyone for their continued prayers and support!